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Along with making women strong, we must also strive to allow the men to understand and respect us. We must feel free and safe enough to go out at any time, instead of making us stay in a house. Then, we’d know that men do respect us.

To quote an example, I remember a post that I read on Facebook. There was a girl who was having her periods and roamed around the city with the stains and whenever any women approached her to tell about it, she considered it as a shame. She wrote that the women who came forward to offer her a pad didn’t respect the natural cycles and are ashamed of it. But girl, that wasn’t brave of you. That was stupidity. A pad is not to hide weakness, it’s for hygiene. This was a perfect example of misleading people.

What does a woman want? Is it the era of a perfect family, a perfect husband or children, just so that she would dedicate her whole life for that sake? It hasn’t changed that much, but due to the need of the hour, now wants one thing for sure. Respect!

To ‘help’ women protect themselves, many organizations have come forward. But is that what we need? Is this the goal of feminism? I believe not!

I don’t say that what the organizations are doing is wrong, but this is just making us more dependent on them than empowering us. So what is going wrong here? Why is the notion of feminism so mistaken?

We women should understand the true meaning of it. We are not here to fight against the men. We fight against the odds. Respect means equality. We are not here to
snatch the opportunities from men. We are merely here to create our own opportunities. To free ourselves from all the clutches in which we have been trapped for many years. To be free from all the burden that is put on us by ‘society’.

Giving us ‘reservations’ or ‘exemptions’ is not what we require. We require ‘Equality’. Reservations are a weakness in disguise. It will not empower us but will make us ‘used to it’. What if we are gifted? There is no need for ‘help’ from the fake hands that show up with hidden intentions.

Chess also teaches us that we must always play for a win. If you are up against a stronger opponent and play for a draw, you will probably end up losing. When you have an advantage, play to maintain it, else be patient and seize it at the right moment.

Chess taught me to keep my emotions in control. It taught me that no matter what state of mind you are in and how intimidating your opponent is, we must bottle up all our emotions and let it out only in those sixty-four squares. In chess, sometimes we end up in a zugzwang. A zugzwang is defined as a situation in which a player is forced to make a disadvantageous move. Parallels in life, there will be times where we must make sacrifices and play moves that seem disadvantageous for us at the moment but are for the greater good in the long run.

There is a common tactic called discovered attack in chess which involves a player pretending to do something but attacking something else. We must apply the same to life and ensure that others are not able to guess our moves and take us for a ride. We must make it a point to add a tinge of mystery to our lives.

We should not worry if things start to look hopeless or you don’t have any idea what move to make, view from a different perspective and try to analyze the situation from a different angle. We should never give up and always be on the watch. When we lose we should accept defeat gracefully and be a good loser because we never really lose in life. We should use the game to reload our experiences and use it as ammo to move up the ladder of life.

Chess is proof that once we start to look out for solutions, life gives it by hiding it in the strangest of places.

When I was about twelve, my grandma taught me how to play chess. It took me a few days to understand the rules and learn it. Being an avid Sudoku lover, that is, being a person who solves math for fun, my grandma slaughtered me in almost all the games we played. It was only after a month did I start winning games. At that time chess was all about winning or losing.

Life is a game of chess.

Looking more deeply, I realized that people like me are playing chess in their daily lives in different situations. Although all of them do not realize that they have made a move, we are playing different games against different opponents in our lifetime. Some games are easy and some are tough, some games are friendly matches and others are not, and not all the games have the same time control.

Given that chess was initially designed as an allegory of human life, there are a lot of lessons I learned from chess that we can imbibe in our lives. As in chess, we must choose our moves carefully. The moves we make should be backed up a proper strategy and tactics instead of simply playing ineptly. We must have a game plan and must also learn to be flexible with it. We can think for hours to come and come up with a great plan but, the next move your opponent makes could catch you off guard and turn everything over. So, we must be quick in adapting to unexpected changes.

Zen masters used witty, humorous stories to impart knowledge and morals of Buddhism to their students. These Zen stories are still very much relevant in today’s society. Zen stories, often puzzling, reveal to us the (unseen) nature of human mind. Following is a compilation of my favorite Zen stories.
So kickback and enjoy a stroll along the path of Zen!

What Is Enlightenment?

A disciple of Chuang Tzu is talking to his friend, who is a disciple of another master. His friend claims that his teacher is capable of all sorts of magical acts, like he would move a brush in the air, and characters would appear on a piece of paper hundreds of feet away. “And what can YOUR master do?” he asks the other disciple. “My master can also perform amazing feats,” the other student replies. “When he’s tired, he sleeps. When hungry, he eats”

I Don’t Know

The emperor, who was a devout Buddhist, invited a great Zen master to the Palace in order to ask him questions about Buddhism. “What is the ultimate truth taught by Buddhism?” The emperor asked. “Vast emptiness… and not a trace of holiness,” the master replied. “If there is no holiness, then who or what are you?” The emperor said. “I do not know.” The master replied.

Working Very Hard

A martial arts student went to his teacher and said earnestly, “I am devoted to studying your martial system. How long will it take me to master it?” The teacher’s reply was casual. “Ten years.” Impatiently, the student answered, “But I want to master it faster than that. What if I work really hard and practice ten or more hours a day, every day. How long will it take then?” The teacher thought for a moment, “20 years.”

It Will Pass

A student went to his meditation master and complained, “My meditation is awful! I am constantly distracted, or my legs ache, or I’m constantly falling asleep. It’s just horrible!” “It will pass,” the teacher said matter-of-factly. A week later, the student came back to his teacher. “My meditation is wonderful! I feel so aware, so peaceful, so alive! It’s just wonderful!” “It will pass,” the teacher replied matter-of-factly.